California HR Conference Update

By Stephanie Hammerwold

There is only one more day left in the 2018 California HR Conference. The conference has been a whirlwind of HR information, and I met quite a few HR professionals, vendors and speakers committed to creating workplaces that are growing and adapting to our changing world.

One of the biggest themes of this year's conference has been a focus on building workplace culture. This year the California HR Conference offered something new in the form of TED-style talks from CHROs. Paul Wolfe from Indeed, Laurie Shakur from Nielsen Portfolio Division and Mindi Cox from O.C. Tanner all shared ways in which they have invested in building a culture that supports their employees.

"When someone is called into a leadership position, their job becomes people," Cox said. She then explained that her company sees the greatest value in taking care of employees. That is ultimately what leads employees to build a successful product and strong relationships with customers.

Shakur talked about putting the human back in human resources. She emphasized why walking around, asking employees questions and also taking the time to listen to what they have to say is essential to improving culture. Shakur had realized that she was failing to do this, and it was not until she changed her approach to HR that things began to change within the workplace culture.

Earlier in the day, Garry Ridge, the President and CEO of WD-40 spoke about how his company has successfully built a workplace culture that is driven by a need to take care of its people. Ridge reminded the audience that, "Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work."  If we strive to create a workplace where this can happen, then success will follow. It is a matter of creating an environment where employees are empowered to do the work that needs to be done to achieve company goals. I will have more on workplace culture as well as what Ridge talked about in a post later this week.

Several sessions also covered culture from a compliance standpoint. With the rise of the #MeToo movement, workplace harassment is finally getting the attention it needs. At a Monday session on how to prevent a harassment claim from toppling your organization, Helene Wasserman stressed that it is important that training covers civility in the workplace. This includes upper management that fosters a respectful workplace. She also said that training should include information on bystander intervention so that employees know the importance of speaking up if they witness something.

The highlight for the final day of the conference is the closing keynote by astronaut Scott Kelly. Be sure to follow me on Twitter for live updates of Kelly's talk.

Watch this blog and Workology for more posts on conference content later this week.

How to Create a Company Culture of Communication

By Oscar Waterworth

Communication is the blood flow of every business and it’s also a critical workflow aspect, which requires time and active effort to streamline and optimize. Unfortunately, many up-and-coming brands fail to take communication seriously and such an oversight usually costs them a lot in the long run, since it can punch deep holes in productivity, growth potential and bottom line. If you want to stay on the safe side of your business endeavor, it may be a smart move to establish a culture of communication as one of your company’s main pillars. Don’t know how to pull it off? No worries: here are a few smart tips to follow if you want to set your brand’s communicative efforts on the right and well-voiced track.

Internal Communication Channels

Active communication between all relevant workplace links is critical for long-term productivity, favorable bottom line, and business sustainability. In this light, prompt exchange of information and timely feedback are a guarantee of quick resolution of all potential issues which may arise in the line of work. To speed up internal exchange of information, facilitate collaboration, reduce response delays, and boost overall efficiency of communication, you can use an intranet or live messaging system instead of conventional e-mail.

Weekly Reports and Reviews

For peak communication ease and efficiency, direct reports and performance reviews should be presented to the staff on a weekly basis, and preferably accompanied by face-to-face meetings. To avoid stress of one-on-one sit-downs and ensure peak team engagement and communication efficiency, you can organize informal weekly get-togethers: it will allow you to fill your team in on relevant details and casually discuss ways to boost output, minimize waste of resources and other critical performance- and workflow-related aspects.

Monthly Staff Meetings

Face-to-face meetings are a go-to communication mode for monthly and quarterly presentation of reports and key information roundups. For this reason, it might be a wise move to stage staff meetings at least once a month and update your team about vital business decisions, initiatives, performance metrics, and key concerns and priorities for the forthcoming period. Strive to make monthly meet-ups enjoyable, avoid bossiness and leave criticism for one-on-one meetings: after all, you’re supposed to set a positive example for your team.

Regular 360° Reviews

A 360° review is another smart communication tool many businesses use to dial up productivity and bottom line and secure long-term expansion, and it’s also an internal communication mode which helps managers solicit feedback on an employer’s skills and performance from other team members. Using 360° reviews, managers are able to provide positive and constructive feedback to each and every team member based on the analysis of comments and remarks submitted by their coworkers, superiors and subordinates.

Annual Performance Reviews

In addition to monthly and quarterly reports, annual performance reviews can help managers adjust the course of business conduct, scale results and provide critical feedback to their teams. If you’re about to stage a one-on-one meeting to discuss annual review of an individual worker’s performance, aim to make the ambiance formal yet amiable, accentuate the positives and offer a range of constructive tips on ways the employee can optimize performance and exploitation of company’s resources in the year to come.

Anonymous Staff Surveys

Surveys are another critical tool for gathering employee feedback that can be used to hack peak performance, identify problematic workflow aspects and eliminate glitches and conflicts. If you want to create an environment in which your staff will voice their views openly, make the survey anonymous: that way, all team members will feel comfortable speaking their mind, which is vital for gathering information about chief challenges and room for improvement. Feedback obtained from surveys can make the difference between a timely business conduct tweak and shutdown.

Informal Social Outings

Last but not the least, don’t overlook the power of informal get-togethers after work hours. The trip to the local bowling alley or a casual sit-down over a pint of beer can be a valuable source of insights about potential problems and solutions to chronic issues managers can use to fine-tune their approach to certain aspects of the workflow. In addition to that, social events outside work hours are a cost-efficient way for managers to foster close team bonds and collaboration across departments, so don’t overlook team building if you want to dial up communication at work.

Up the Game

Are you ready to take your brand’s communication to the next level? Use the instruments above to set up a tight communication network and streamline exchange of information between vital links in the workplace hierarchy puzzle, and your company’s sustainability and growth will be as safe as well-communicated messages. Good luck!

Oscar Waterworth is a writer and a senior editor at Bizzmarkblog. He frequently blogs about the latest developments in the tech, marketing, and business industries. To stay updated with Oscar’s latest posts, you can follow him on Twitter.

Human Resources Trends for 2017

By Oscar Waterworth

The year 2017 will be particularly challenging for human resources teams as they will need to constantly adapt their strategies to emerging trends and ongoing changes in the working conditions and environment. Here is a look at some of the top human resources trends for 2017.

Company Culture and Employee Engagement as a Priority

As testimonials of employees and candidates are more visible with the rise of employer review websites, corporate practices are more transparent than ever. This is marking the end of unethical practices, and the beginning of taking care of issues such as respectful treatment of employees at all levels including benefits, job security, etc. Companies need to focus on corporate culture and values in order to retain employees and attract future candidates.

Further Rise of Blended Workforce

A major HR trend still relevant in 2017 is the continuing change in structure of the global workforce. While full-time employees still form the greatest part of the workforce, there has been a constant rise in numbers of non-traditional workers such as freelancers, interns, remote and part-time workers, etc. Since permanent employees are working side by side with temporary or non-traditional workers, the HR teams will face new challenges when it comes to organizing different types of workers while working together on the same project.

Changes in Performance Management and Reviews

While the annual performance reviews are increasingly abandoned in favor of continuous, more personal methods of delivering feedback to employees, the companies are yet to find a performance management strategy that best suits their working environment and their workforce. Most employees, especially the younger generations, appreciate regular and relevant feedback, so they can focus sooner on areas in which they can improve their performance. In 2017, companies will likely switch from performance measurement to performance counseling—as comments and discussion with employers and peers will replace the traditional rating systems.

Separating Performance Management and Compensation

As companies redefine or completely abandon performance rating, the question of what to do with performance-based bonuses still remains. Some companies have already eliminated monetary rewards based on performance, as it was concluded that they don’t significantly improve performance or employee morale while potentially causing rivalry in the workplace. It will be important to determine how to calculate pay and bonuses in a fair and competitive way, while respecting the newly established culture of continual feedback instead of keeping the classic performance ratings.

Turning Towards In-house Training

In order to keep their existing employees’ skills up to date, companies have often turned to outside sources for additional training and education. In 2017, HR teams will be looking for useful skills which employees already possess and the ways these skills can be put to use in a more cost effective in-house training.

Increasing Appreciation of Work Flexibility

Flexibility may be the benefit that is currently valued the most as work/life balance seems to be very important to employees, especially younger workers. In order to keep the talent working for them in the new results-driven environment, companies are increasingly flexible with working hours and location of their employees. In order to effectively keep track of a growing number of workers with different schedules, the use of a reliable time tracking software will be essential throughout 2017.

Using the Advantages of Big Data Analysis

To remain competitive, companies will invest more resources in big data analysis as the results of it have the potential to improve every aspect of the business.  Interpretation of the data will be helpful in areas of recruitment, improving employees’ performance and retention as well as reducing the number of bad hires.

Rising Interest in Wellness Programs

Companies are using wellness programs to reduce absenteeism, attract and retain talent, as well as save on healthcare costs. Creating a healthy and supportive work environment will help maintain employees in an optimal mental, emotional and physical state of well-being.

The successful implementation of good strategies in HR will lead to improved performance and greater satisfaction of the employees. This will largely depend on the ability of HR teams to tackle the challenges that will come with the latest trends while searching for adequate solutions for the new working situations.

Oscar Waterworth is a writer and a senior editor at Bizzmarkblog. He frequently blogs about the latest developments in the tech, marketing, and business industries. To stay updated with Oscar’s latest posts, you can follow him on Twitter.

The Importance of Promoting Positive Company Culture on Social Media

By Oscar Waterworth

The workplace as a concept has always been an evolving "entity." From employees struggling to attain working conditions that would not kill them to companies encouraging their employees to nap at work; from companies trying to do everything to keep their employees from unionizing to employees realizing they do not matter to their employers. This could go on indefinitely.

Today's workplace is a very complex one in that employees are more jaded and less loyal than ever before. The employers, on the other hand, all have to deal with brutal competition but still need to let the employees "do their thing," especially in some super-competitive industries. Slap a ton of new HR tech on top of it and you get a whole mess.

One thing that has come out of all of this is that attracting and hiring the best talent in the industry has become more difficult than ever before, especially if you are targeting younger generations. One of the ways to do this is to be very smart about promoting your positive company culture on social media.

Create a Positive Company Culture

You can do as much employer marketing and social media promotion as you wish, but if you actually do not have a positive company culture, it will be for nothing. Trying to plaster a fancy façade on a house without walls and the foundation does not work. 

Creating a positive company culture is a complex and comprehensive task and it would be silly to try and explain it in a few sentences. Still, there are some basics that can point you in the right direction: properly compensating your employees for the work they do; providing (at least) some basic employee benefits; ensuring everyone is treated fairly and given an equal chance; putting an end to any discrimination in the workplace; rewarding the people who deserve it; ensuring everyone understands what the company is about and acts accordingly.

It's All About the Employees

If you wish to start spreading your positive company culture across the social media channels, you will always start and end with your employees. At the core of it, a positive company culture is one where employees are happy and you need to show this. If someone does a great work, make sure to announce it on your social media channels. If a team does something truly great, create a short video and post it on your YouTube channel. If one of your employees has a baby, make sure to gift them something and publish it on social media.

As long as your social media profiles feature photos and videos of smiling faces, everyone will know that your company cares about its people.

“At the core of it, a positive company culture is one where employees are happy and you need to show this.”

Letting the People In

There is something alluring about a behind-the-scenes peek, it doesn't matter what into. We love to see how movies or TV shows are made. Sports fans enjoy it very much when they can see how their favorite team practices and travels. Fashion enthusiasts love watching how fashion shows are put on from the inside. It all makes us feel like we are involved in some way.

Believe it or not, doing the same for your company can be a great way to present it on social media. Snap a few photos when the day is particularly busy (and sunny, because of the light and everything), do a short video when the last "I" is being dotted on a project and when everyone celebrates. Show people how your different departments work.

Celebrate the Good Times

Every company has its non-work moments and these are the perfect opportunity to show how fun and employee-friendly your company is. Holiday celebrations, company outings, various teambuilding activities – all of these look amazing on camera and on social media. It is very likely that your employees will have a ton of pics and videos themselves. Ask them if they would share them with you. Of course, you will also encourage them to share them on their own personal social media profiles.

Another good idea would be to share these good times on the company blog. No matter how serious your blog content usually is, no one will mind if you do a couple of posts every year, showing off the fun-loving side of your company. Of course, you will need to pay attention not to go overboard. As content marketing agency professionals will always point out, your blog needs to be balanced.

Closing Word

In the end, it all comes down to how good your employees feel working for you. If they come to work with smiles on their faces (at least most of the time), promoting your positive company culture on social media will be a very natural process.

Still, you can always give it a push or two.

Oscar Waterworth is a writer and a senior editor at Bizzmarkblog. He frequently blogs about the latest developments in the tech, marketing, and business industries. To stay updated with Oscar’s latest posts, you can follow him on Twitter.